Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Prada

I was driving near home when a fellow walking his Labradoodle signaled for me to stop. I pulled over and rolled down my window. That’s when I noticed, through an opening in the fellow’s jacket, a pair of large dark eyes staring out at me. The smashed in face was the clincher, it was a pint-sized Shih Tzu.

Seeing me looking at the Shih Tzu, he said, “Do you know this dog?

“I don’t, but my wife will. She knows all the dogs in the neighborhood.”

“Someone needs your help,” I said as I hurried through the door. “There’s a lost dog.”

She didn’t need to hear more.Her eyes sparkled and she headed outside to meet the dog. Surprisingly, she didn’t recognize him but when the fellow said he had to get to work she offered to keep the dog until they found the owners.

“I’ll take his picture and put up some flyers,” she said.

She quickly scooped the dog into her arms, scratched his belly, oohed and aahed a bit and took him inside. A few minutes later she started on the flyers with his picture on it.

She printed up the flyers and posted them in the neighborhood. When she returned she looked concerned.

“What’s up,” I asked.

“Well you know,” she said, “that dog is awfully cute and I’ll bet some people will claim it is theirs even if it isn’t. How will we know the real owner?

“I know,” she said, “I’ll ask them to identify the sex of the dog.”

“So only a lucky thief will get the dog since he has a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly,” I said.

She didn’t like that. I was smart and apologized immediately. We talked about it some more and finally decided that we would require a picture of the dog. Anyone owning an animal that cute would have pictures.

Having done all we could we had a wonderful afternoon with our little house guest. The pup was friendly and a treat to have around. Since we have a Shih Tzu of our own, the little guy soon had a new best friend. He followed our dog around the house like a devoted little brother.

I wondered if the little dog’s guardians had discovered him missing yet. Did they know he was gone or had they yet to check? Were they sick with worry, were they thinking the worst, were there tears in their eyes as they searched the neighborhood?

I imagined how the sinking feeling now overwhelming them would vanish once they saw the flyers.

“What,” I said.

“I think I’ll call him Jack,” she said.

“Are you sure you want to name him,” I said. “It will make it harder to say goodbye.”

“He looks like a Jack to me. Yes, he is most certainly a Jack.”

“I wonder what his real name is?”

“I don’t know but if it’s not Jack, they got it wrong.”

The phone rang, “Are you the people who found our dog.”

I told him we were.

“Oh, oh,” he said and started getting all gooey on me. “Oh thank God. We’ve been so worried about our little Prada!”

“Prada?” I said.

“Yes, Prada.”

“Prada is fine.”

“Tell me how to find your home. I’ll come immediately.”

I explained that he needed to bring a picture to verify “Prada’s” identity and he readily agreed he would.

He arrived a few moments later in a BMW. He was handsome and was wearing an expensive coat. I don’t know what I was expecting but to see such a polished looking fellow get all blubbery over a tiny little dog wasn’t it. He had a picture of the dog, so that was settled.

We invited him in and handed over Jack, now once again Prada. We watched him as he left, his fancy coat, his perfect hair and tucked under his arm like a fashion accessory was Prada. An accessory that was now licking his face.

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Lovely - couldn't help smiling at the picture of the "Fashionable man with fashion accessory" having his face licked - no matter how pretentious the name the dog obviously loved him and that's all that mattered.